Pear Almond Cardomom Cake (Vegan)

Recipe from here.

Background
When we were traveling in Scotland, we came across a pear cardomom cake in a coffee shop that we all just loved. It was a unique taste and had never tasted this combination. Since then have been wanting to try it out at home. It so happened to be my hubby's Bday and I decided to make it. However I wanted an eggless cake, so I found this Vegan Pear Almond cake recipe. I decided to keep the almond element in and added cardamom. The original one also had icing in between 2 layers of cake and on top, I skipped the icing part.

My Comments

• I didnt have white sugar, so added only brown sugar. 
• I didnt dust with icing sugar on top (coz of above reason)
• I added cow's milk since I didn't have a vegan milk at home. 
• I baked for 60 mins in my largest springfoam baking pan (size to be updated), but I think I would re-do this with my mid-size and bake for longer. The cake was done on the outside and any longer would have burnt the bottom and sides, however the insides were a little mushy. 
• I added about 80g more pear, which prob I shouldn't have to reduce the mushiness? Add exact amount as directed next time. 
• I also cut 1 pear into slices and decorated on top. Could have done with a few more slices. Also decorated with sliced almonds on top.
• I used blanched almond flour (from Costco) instead of ground almonds.
• I found the cake too sweet (even without the icing sugar dusting on top), so can reduce sugar next time. 
• I added 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder (not in the recipe). 1.5 tsp should be enough, was a tad bit heavy.

Ingredients

• 320 g pear, chopped into roughly 1cm pieces
• 3 tbsp ground golden flaxseed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 120 ml soya (or other non-dairy) milk
• 60 ml light olive (or other mild tasting) oil
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g sugar (white or a mix of white and brown/light muscovado)
• 100 g ground almonds
• 230 g plain flour
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• handful of flaked almonds (optional)
• icing sugar to sprinkle (optional)

Method

1. Stir 6 tbsp of water into the ground flaxseed and set aside.
2. Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and lightly oil and line the base of a large cake tin or deep flan dish – 10″/26cm is ideal.
3. If the pear is very firm, soften the pieces a little first by cooking them in a pan for a few minutes with a tablespoon or two of water and the lemon juice. Otherwise, simply sprinkle the lemon juice over the pear pieces and set aside. They should ideally be quite firm but not turnip-like.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flaxseed mixture, oil, soya milk, and almond and vanilla extracts.
5. Add the sugar and whisk until well combined.
6. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together before adding the flour, with the ground almonds, to the liquid mixture. Stir to combine.
7. Lastly, stir through the chopped pear. It will look as if there is more pear than cake mix at this stage – it’s supposed to!
8. Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and level it a little. If you are using flaked almonds, sprinkle these across the top.
9. Bake for around 45 minutes. The cake should have a deep golden crust with little bumps or gaps where the chunks of pear show through.
10. Leave to cool before removing from the tin and sprinkling liberally with icing sugar, if using.

Vegan Apple Cake

Recipe from here.

My Comments

• I didn't do the glaze 
• I baked this cake for much longer - 1.5 hours almost (turned out great)
• I didnt add flaxmeal since I didnt have it. 
• I used 3 apples cut into large pieces to put in batter + 1-1.5 apples sliced to place on top of the cake and decorate it. 
• I used my mid-size (will update the size in inches later) spring foam baking pan for this.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (sub with half regular whole-wheat and half all-purpose if you can't find whole-wheat pastry flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon (I sometimes use a mix of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar (if you want to cut down on this, substitute a quarter of the sugar with an equal amount of applesauce)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp flaxmeal (whisked with 6 tbsp of water to make two flax "eggs")
• 1 cup walnuts , toasted lightly and chopped
• 2 1/2 cups apples (About 1 1/2 apples, finely chopped. I use Pink Lady or Granny Smith, but most apples would work)

For optional applesauce vanilla drizzle:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

 

 Instructions

• Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
• Beat together the oil, sugar and vanilla for about a minute to aerate.
• Add the flaxmeal mixture, beat for a few more seconds to mix, and then add the flour mixture.
• Stir with a spatula to get the ingredients well-mixed. The dough will be very stiff, but don't worry -- the apples will express juices as they bake. Add the apples and the walnuts and mix well.
• Pour the batter into an 8-inch oiled and floured square pan (or use a round cake pan if that's what you have). To make the cake easier to unmold, line the pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and then oil and flour. (The first time I baked this cake years ago, I didn't take that extra step and unmolding this cake from the pan was a small battle.)
• Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes. Unmold and continue cooling.

Make the applesauce drizzle:

• Whisk together all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl. Drizzle over the cake just before serving. (Adding the drizzle in advance will cause it to seep into the cake, making it more moist -- it will be totally delicious, but will get too tender.)